This was more than just a concert, it was folk class. I will admit to being a huge Billy Bragg fan. Seeing him perform live was a foggy euphoric experience for me. However, this was not a typical Billy Bragg performance. Bragg performed with Joe Henry. They recently recorded an album together and happen to have done so by riding the rails of the United States and recording on various platforms and backstreets. One of the most folky things I have ever heard of. Their performance was basically an academic lecture on the history of folk music. They taught and orated to the crowd between almost every song.

​One of the more interesting stories they told explained the mythology behind the Leadbelly song ‘Midnight Special’. Apparently, light from a midnight train would pass by a prison called Sugarland and the myth was that if the light from the train hit you, you would be the next person to be paroled. Billy and Joe covered a Woody Guthrie song, a Bob Dylan song, several Leadbelly tunes and many classic folk songs from the great American songbook. In fact, most of their songs were covers and most of them about trains. Even Billy Bragg remarked that it was a little strange to sing almost exclusively about trains during such “screwed up times”. He said this just before the highlight of the show for me, when Billy Bragg played ‘There is Power in a Union’.

​They were simply conveying their own truths to the audience. Both John and Billy were constantly telling the audience that it was up to them to make the changes that they were singing about. In fact, at one point Billy said, “You know Woody’s guitar didn’t actually kill fascists, it was an idea. An idea that people could rise up and defeat anything through solidarity. People like you. In fact.” All I can say is that this is definitely an act worth seeing if you need some fire put in your belly.